Aardvark Daily

OctaFuel

UPDATE (30 Sept 2008):
A full three months after I wrote the article below, the owner of OctaFuel has admitted that his system is a fraud. As usual, no acknowledgement by the mainstream news of my work in cracking this scam.

I was recently alerted to the activities of a New Zealand company selling a product called OctaFuel (The OctaFuel website).

This is yet another "HHO" system that makes bold and unsubstantiated claims in respect to the fuel-savings that can be had from the electrolysis of water and injection of the resulting H2/O2 gases into a vehicle's engine.

I've spoken at length with Michael Fresnel (aka Michael Weaver), the company founder and have come to the conclusion that this is just another HHO scam, albeit one that has been packaged even more cunningly than is the norm.

When I challenged him to provide proof of his claims, Mike admitted that they only had four systems installed to date but assured me that all of those systems were showing fuel savings.

I asked if he had any truly independent scientific evidence to back his claims and he admitted that they hadn't yet gotten the system properly tested and had their claims verified by a university or other independent testing authority.

He did however, promise to send me concrete scientific proof that the system worked.

Unfortunately this consisted of a sheet of typed numbers without any identification as to the testing authority and a widely debunked "report" commissioned by the Huffman Foundation - the people behind another HHO scam Gas Advance Systems. The content of this report consists largely of careful excerpts from some very old preliminary research on the subject (circa 1970-1984) and a long section from the American Hydrogen Association (who also promote HHO scams).

It is interesting to note that only old, very early research is quoted -- is that because subsequent research showed no economic benefits were to be had from this technology?

OctaFuel claims that their system works because it uses a fancy catalytic converter that contained peltier devices to generate the electricity needed to perform the electrolysis.

Well I've done some research and it appears that the best Peltiers are about 10% efficient when used to generate electricity.

OctaFuel is claiming that their peltier-equipped cat will put out 300 watts of electrical energy - which means it must be absorbing 3KW of heat. Now that is a *lot* of heat.

Then there's the issue of physical size. Due to their low efficiency, a peltier device capable of generating 300W of electrical energy is going to be big, very big.

This manufacturer's specs suggest that a total area of some 640 square cm would be required to generate 300W of electrical power in a best-case scenario (optimum delta-T). That is a lot of area to cram onto a catalytic converter especially when the maximum temperatures must always be kept under 200 degrees C or the devices will be ruined.

But this is a red herring anyway, because... 300W is only 0.4 horsepower, so for all this expense and complication, you're only reducing the load on the engine by a tiny amount -- it makes no sense. Why not just run the electrolysis cell directly from the car's battery and alternator?

Then there's the very oft-mentioned use of the "HYDRion™ catalyst coated DuPont Nafion(R) membrane" by OctaFuel.

This is another red herring.

Why?

Well the suggestion is that this unique material will somehow improve the efficiency of the electrolysis process -- which it may well do. However, even if 100% efficiency were obtained (which can't be achieved), it would make no difference to the viability of this system since the math proves that the H2/O2 production would still be more than an order of magnitude short of what's needed.

I'm sorry but given OctaFuel's inability to provide any credible independent scientific proof to the contrary, this system must be treated like every other "run your car on water" scheme on the market.

It's simply an attempt to lighten consumers' wallets by baffling them with bad science and telling them what they want to hear.

I certainly hope that nobody gets taken-in by this and that sensible people steer well-clear of those franchise opportunities.

It's also worth noting that Michael Richard Fresnel is actually Michael Richard Weaver and uses his new name since adjudged bankrupt (now discharged), an action that also saw him barred from being a company director.

I would strongly urge anyone considering a franchise "opportunity" for OctaFuel to view the "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" video on this page.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I see no such evidence here and the science just doesn't stack up. Ultimately, remember that if it sounds too good to be true...

Quick navigation of this feature:

• The HHO Scam-busting homepage
• The proof HHO is a scam
• A reply to the HHO scammers
• Proof that hydrogen enrichment won't work
• What the scammers say about this site
• The HHO Scam FAQ
• HHO Scams in the news
• Other fuel-saver scams
• Who is Ozzie Freedom?
• The One Million Dollar HHO challenge
• Stanley Meyer's Claims
• A journalist's guide to HHO (run your car on water)
• Discuss this in the forums

Please spread the word to save people from wasting their cash and help put these scammers out of business. Link to the first page of this feature and tell your friends about it.

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